The present invention is directed to a support or holder for a portable appliance and in particular for a hand-held electrical hair dryer.
Portable hand-held electrical hair dryers are well known and have gained widespread popularity for both home and professional use in the styling and drying of a person's hair. The hair dryer usually includes a casing having a handle portion and a main housing portion which houses a heater, motor and fan assembly. In use the fan is operated by the motor to draw air into the housing through the heater and then outwardly of the housing through a suitable air discharge orifice.
Although these hair dryers are not large items, they are of a configuration which usually prevents ready storage thereof when not in use. Since the dryer is frequently used it must be readily available to the user and therefore various storage stands or holders have been provided in the past for storing the dryers to accomplish these ends. Further in certain of these stands operation of the dryer is permitted while the dryer is in a stored position so that the user's hands are free for other purposes such as combing or brushing the hair while it is being dried.
In general the prior art holders provide for stands having cradles for receiving the handle or other portion of the hair dryer casing. Although these known stands have proven acceptable for the intended uses, various problems are found in known devices for utilization of the devices both for storing the dryer when not in use yet still maintaining the desirable feature of allowing for operation of the dryer while in the stored position.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel holder or support for a portable electrical hair dryer.
Another object is to provide a holder having novel means for maintaining the dryer in stored position and allowing for operation thereof in a plurality of positions in the stored position.
A still further object is to provide a novel holder having novel means for maintaining and locking the hair dryer in stored position which includes means for ready release thereof from the holder.
A further object is to provide a novel holder of relatively few parts thereby allowing for a reduction in manufacturing costs both in labor and material.